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The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

On January 13, 2017, we entered Phase 3 of the Floating City Project, now called the Floating Island Project.

On that day, delegates from the government of French Polynesia travelled to San Francisco to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with us agreeing to cooperate on developing legislation for The Floating Island Project by the end of 2017. The MOU obligates The Seasteading Institute to conduct an economic analysis to demonstrate the economic benefits for French Polynesia, as well as an environmental assessment to assure the health of the ocean and seabed. When these studies are complete, French Polynesia will collaborate with The Seasteading Institute to develop a special governing framework for a land base and sea zone.

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

Founded in 2017 by members of The Seasteading Institute and a former minister of French Polynesia, Blue Frontiers has a diverse team from around the world, working on developing floating islands in French Polynesia. It is now independently responsible for all aspects of the project.

The project consists of constructing ecological floating platforms in a lagoon of French Polynesia that could offer a response to the challenges of rising sea levels and sustainable development.

These platforms would also provide a basis for homes, offices and infrastructure to encourage the formation of vibrant communities and explore new ways of living together.

At the same time, we want to promote innovation in digital and marine technologies by creating an attractive destination benefiting from its unique framework.

The Institute was in the process of evaluating potential host countries when it was invited by a Polynesian to consider French Polynesia, given the many strengths of the region:

The Polynesian government will fund neither the studies nor the completion of the project. No Polynesian tax dollars will fund Seasteads. No local investors will get tax exemptions either. The Institute estimates that the amount we are going to have to invest in Polynesia will be between 30 to 50 million USD for the pilot phase.

The floating island project will improve the traditional framework of special economic zones with provisions specifically designed to attract investors in French Polynesia. Because free zones already exist elsewhere, we need an innovative legislative framework and streamlined administrative procedures to attract partners and investors.

During our trip to French Polynesia in September 2016, we visited several promising sites. Detailed studies must now be undertaken, taking into account in particular the local residents, the seabed, the currents, and the profile of the wind and waves.

The images on our website come from ideas and studies done before we chose French Polynesia as our host country. Our architects will design floating islands that suit the specific environmental and aesthetic needs of the site we select.

The environment is a major concern of the project, and our architects are very sensitive to protecting it. Our islands are designed to have a negligible impact on the environment, use renewable energies and may even, according to some preliminary studies, lead to an improvement of the ecosystem under certain conditions. We plan to form partnerships for the monitoring of the seabed and to share knowledge about our progress.

The protocol signals the willingness of the government and the Institute to work together. In 2017, Blue Frontiers completed and submitted to the government environmental and economic studies. Following that, the government will develop an appropriate legislative framework for the project.

You can download the text of the protocol (english text at in the second part).

Our partners and companies attracted by this project will contribute to the diversification of the Polynesian economy and help retain local graduates who might otherwise look abroad for opportunities.

Significant investments in construction will spread to the local economy, and businesses and residents will maintain or increase employment with domestic suppliers and traders.

We hope to help place Polynesia at the center of international efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, notably by developing the technologies needed to maintain populations threatened by rising sea levels in the Tuamotu and elsewhere.

Listen to Minister Jean Christophe Bouissou present the project and its benefits to TNTV:

A South Pacific island nation is cutting ties with tech billionaires and libertarians.

In 2017, government officials in French Polynesia signed an agreement with the Seasteading Institute, a group founded by investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, that would give the libertarian group access to build a floating and politically autonomous city, called a seastead, off the coast.

Now the country’s ruling political party says the agreement has expired.

The ruling Tapura Huiraatira party said in a Facebook post that the memorandum of understanding, a non-binding document that sealed the government’s intent to work with the group, had a “deadline of validity” at the end of 2017. The agreement became void in January 2018.

“It’s not a contract. This document does not bind the Country [sic] in any way. It has no legal value,” the Facebook note said.

Facebook/tapura-huiraatira-officiel

In 2008, Thiel, a longtime tech industry fixture and a Trump transition team member, set out on a mission to develop a floating city that would run independently from existing nations. Thiel invested $1.7 million in The Seasteading Institute, but resigned from its board in 2011.

Thiel later said in an interview that engineering seasteads is “not quite feasible.”

After the group’s founding in 2008, some tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley chastised the idea, saying that the island paradises would be too wild, expensive, and elitist to generate real results.

But the seasteading concept began eventually gathering support from libertarians and people living outside the Silicon Valley bubble. A 2013 crowdfunding campaign raised over $27,000.

For years, the Seasteading Institute wanted to set up camp in international waters. Eventually, the group determined the costs of building hundreds of miles from a shoreline, away from an existing nation, were too extravagant. So the institute decided to team up with a host country.

French Polynesia fit the bill.

The island chain is located an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles. It has a fiber cable that runs underwater to Hawaii, providing the bandwidth that tech workers require.

Rising sea levels threaten French Polynesia’s existence, which made a proposal to build new land appealing to the government.

An artist’s rendering shows the plans for a seastead off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Blue Frontiers

In 2016, the Seasteading Institute sent a delegation to meet with French Polynesian officials. They drafted an informal agreement between the government and the Seasteading Institute.

But as the Seasteading Institute plotted its vision, locals from Tahiti the largest island in French Polynesia grew increasingly concerned about the prospect of “tech colonialism.”

A documentary film crew followed the Seasteading Institute leadership at a conference in Tahiti last year. They found that locals weren’t given much of a voice at these events. In the film, Alexandre Taliercio, a local radio and TV personality, describes the seastead project as a cross between “visionary genius” and “megalomania.”

In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Taliercio argued that rich Americans just want to skip out on paying taxes. “These millionaires have much more to gain than we do,” he said.

The Seasteading Institute has not publicly addressed the sunken plans. Its website features a video about the French Polynesian “floating island” splashed across the front page.

Business Insider contacted the Seasteading Institute and did not immediately receive comment.

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

On January 13, 2017, we entered Phase 3 of the Floating City Project, now called the Floating Island Project.

On that day, delegates from the government of French Polynesia travelled to San Francisco to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with us agreeing to cooperate on developing legislation for The Floating Island Project by the end of 2017. The MOU obligates The Seasteading Institute to conduct an economic analysis to demonstrate the economic benefits for French Polynesia, as well as an environmental assessment to assure the health of the ocean and seabed. When these studies are complete, French Polynesia will collaborate with The Seasteading Institute to develop a special governing framework for a land base and sea zone.

A South Pacific island nation is cutting ties with tech billionaires and libertarians.

In 2017, government officials in French Polynesia signed an agreement with the Seasteading Institute, a group founded by investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, that would give the libertarian group access to build a floating and politically autonomous city, called a seastead, off the coast.

Now the country’s ruling political party says the agreement has expired.

The ruling Tapura Huiraatira party said in a Facebook post that the memorandum of understanding, a non-binding document that sealed the government’s intent to work with the group, had a “deadline of validity” at the end of 2017. The agreement became void in January 2018.

“It’s not a contract. This document does not bind the Country [sic] in any way. It has no legal value,” the Facebook note said.

Facebook/tapura-huiraatira-officiel

In 2008, Thiel, a longtime tech industry fixture and a Trump transition team member, set out on a mission to develop a floating city that would run independently from existing nations. Thiel invested $1.7 million in The Seasteading Institute, but resigned from its board in 2011.

Thiel later said in an interview that engineering seasteads is “not quite feasible.”

After the group’s founding in 2008, some tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley chastised the idea, saying that the island paradises would be too wild, expensive, and elitist to generate real results.

But the seasteading concept began eventually gathering support from libertarians and people living outside the Silicon Valley bubble. A 2013 crowdfunding campaign raised over $27,000.

For years, the Seasteading Institute wanted to set up camp in international waters. Eventually, the group determined the costs of building hundreds of miles from a shoreline, away from an existing nation, were too extravagant. So the institute decided to team up with a host country.

French Polynesia fit the bill.

The island chain is located an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles. It has a fiber cable that runs underwater to Hawaii, providing the bandwidth that tech workers require.

Rising sea levels threaten French Polynesia’s existence, which made a proposal to build new land appealing to the government.

An artist’s rendering shows the plans for a seastead off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Blue Frontiers

In 2016, the Seasteading Institute sent a delegation to meet with French Polynesian officials. They drafted an informal agreement between the government and the Seasteading Institute.

But as the Seasteading Institute plotted its vision, locals from Tahiti the largest island in French Polynesia grew increasingly concerned about the prospect of “tech colonialism.”

A documentary film crew followed the Seasteading Institute leadership at a conference in Tahiti last year. They found that locals weren’t given much of a voice at these events. In the film, Alexandre Taliercio, a local radio and TV personality, describes the seastead project as a cross between “visionary genius” and “megalomania.”

In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Taliercio argued that rich Americans just want to skip out on paying taxes. “These millionaires have much more to gain than we do,” he said.

The Seasteading Institute has not publicly addressed the sunken plans. Its website features a video about the French Polynesian “floating island” splashed across the front page.

Business Insider contacted the Seasteading Institute and did not immediately receive comment.

Founded in 2017 by members of The Seasteading Institute and a former minister of French Polynesia, Blue Frontiers has a diverse team from around the world, working on developing floating islands in French Polynesia. It is now independently responsible for all aspects of the project.

The project consists of constructing ecological floating platforms in a lagoon of French Polynesia that could offer a response to the challenges of rising sea levels and sustainable development.

These platforms would also provide a basis for homes, offices and infrastructure to encourage the formation of vibrant communities and explore new ways of living together.

At the same time, we want to promote innovation in digital and marine technologies by creating an attractive destination benefiting from its unique framework.

The Institute was in the process of evaluating potential host countries when it was invited by a Polynesian to consider French Polynesia, given the many strengths of the region:

The Polynesian government will fund neither the studies nor the completion of the project. No Polynesian tax dollars will fund Seasteads. No local investors will get tax exemptions either. The Institute estimates that the amount we are going to have to invest in Polynesia will be between 30 to 50 million USD for the pilot phase.

The floating island project will improve the traditional framework of special economic zones with provisions specifically designed to attract investors in French Polynesia. Because free zones already exist elsewhere, we need an innovative legislative framework and streamlined administrative procedures to attract partners and investors.

During our trip to French Polynesia in September 2016, we visited several promising sites. Detailed studies must now be undertaken, taking into account in particular the local residents, the seabed, the currents, and the profile of the wind and waves.

The images on our website come from ideas and studies done before we chose French Polynesia as our host country. Our architects will design floating islands that suit the specific environmental and aesthetic needs of the site we select.

The environment is a major concern of the project, and our architects are very sensitive to protecting it. Our islands are designed to have a negligible impact on the environment, use renewable energies and may even, according to some preliminary studies, lead to an improvement of the ecosystem under certain conditions. We plan to form partnerships for the monitoring of the seabed and to share knowledge about our progress.

The protocol signals the willingness of the government and the Institute to work together. In 2017, Blue Frontiers completed and submitted to the government environmental and economic studies. Following that, the government will develop an appropriate legislative framework for the project.

You can download the text of the protocol (english text at in the second part).

Our partners and companies attracted by this project will contribute to the diversification of the Polynesian economy and help retain local graduates who might otherwise look abroad for opportunities.

Significant investments in construction will spread to the local economy, and businesses and residents will maintain or increase employment with domestic suppliers and traders.

We hope to help place Polynesia at the center of international efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, notably by developing the technologies needed to maintain populations threatened by rising sea levels in the Tuamotu and elsewhere.

Listen to Minister Jean Christophe Bouissou present the project and its benefits to TNTV:

On January 13, 2017, we entered Phase 3 of the Floating City Project, now called the Floating Island Project.

On that day, delegates from the government of French Polynesia travelled to San Francisco to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with us agreeing to cooperate on developing legislation for The Floating Island Project by the end of 2017. The MOU obligates The Seasteading Institute to conduct an economic analysis to demonstrate the economic benefits for French Polynesia, as well as an environmental assessment to assure the health of the ocean and seabed. When these studies are complete, French Polynesia will collaborate with The Seasteading Institute to develop a special governing framework for a land base and sea zone.

Founded in 2017 by members of The Seasteading Institute and a former minister of French Polynesia, Blue Frontiers has a diverse team from around the world, working on developing floating islands in French Polynesia. It is now independently responsible for all aspects of the project.

The project consists of constructing ecological floating platforms in a lagoon of French Polynesia that could offer a response to the challenges of rising sea levels and sustainable development.

These platforms would also provide a basis for homes, offices and infrastructure to encourage the formation of vibrant communities and explore new ways of living together.

At the same time, we want to promote innovation in digital and marine technologies by creating an attractive destination benefiting from its unique framework.

The Institute was in the process of evaluating potential host countries when it was invited by a Polynesian to consider French Polynesia, given the many strengths of the region:

The Polynesian government will fund neither the studies nor the completion of the project. No Polynesian tax dollars will fund Seasteads. No local investors will get tax exemptions either. The Institute estimates that the amount we are going to have to invest in Polynesia will be between 30 to 50 million USD for the pilot phase.

The floating island project will improve the traditional framework of special economic zones with provisions specifically designed to attract investors in French Polynesia. Because free zones already exist elsewhere, we need an innovative legislative framework and streamlined administrative procedures to attract partners and investors.

During our trip to French Polynesia in September 2016, we visited several promising sites. Detailed studies must now be undertaken, taking into account in particular the local residents, the seabed, the currents, and the profile of the wind and waves.

The images on our website come from ideas and studies done before we chose French Polynesia as our host country. Our architects will design floating islands that suit the specific environmental and aesthetic needs of the site we select.

The environment is a major concern of the project, and our architects are very sensitive to protecting it. Our islands are designed to have a negligible impact on the environment, use renewable energies and may even, according to some preliminary studies, lead to an improvement of the ecosystem under certain conditions. We plan to form partnerships for the monitoring of the seabed and to share knowledge about our progress.

The protocol signals the willingness of the government and the Institute to work together. In 2017, Blue Frontiers completed and submitted to the government environmental and economic studies. Following that, the government will develop an appropriate legislative framework for the project.

You can download the text of the protocol (english text at in the second part).

Our partners and companies attracted by this project will contribute to the diversification of the Polynesian economy and help retain local graduates who might otherwise look abroad for opportunities.

Significant investments in construction will spread to the local economy, and businesses and residents will maintain or increase employment with domestic suppliers and traders.

We hope to help place Polynesia at the center of international efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, notably by developing the technologies needed to maintain populations threatened by rising sea levels in the Tuamotu and elsewhere.

Listen to Minister Jean Christophe Bouissou present the project and its benefits to TNTV:

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a combination of the words sea and homesteading. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state.

Seasteaders say such autonomous floating cities would foster faster development of techniques “to feed the hungry, cure the sick, clean the atmosphere and enrich the poor”.[1][2] Some critics fear seasteads are designed more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other problems.[3][4]

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperating with an existing nation to prototype floating islands that are legally semi-autonomous within the nation’s protected territorial waters. On January 13, 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone” for a prototype. [6][7] On March 3, 2018, a mayor from French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and had expired at the end of 2017 in response to a challenger trying to make it an issue for the May, 2018 elections.[8] The project continues forward and will begin a crowdfunding campaign on May 15, 2018.[9]

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,[10][11] Paolo Soleri[12] and companies such as Shimizu and E. Kevin Schopfer.[13]

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

Other historical predecessors and inspirations for seasteading include:

At least two people independently coined the term seasteading: Ken Neumeyer in his book Sailing the Farm (1981) and Wayne Gramlich in his article “Seasteading Homesteading on the High Seas” (1998).[15]

Gramlichs essay attracted the attention of Patri Friedman.[16] The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001.[17] Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

On April 15, 2008, Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI), an organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters.[18][19][20]

Friedman and Gramlich noted that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from shore. Beyond that boundary lie the high seas, which are not subject to the laws of any sovereign state other than the flag under which a ship sails.

They proposed that a seastead could take advantage of the absence of laws and regulations outside the sovereignty of nations to experiment with new governance systems, and allow the citizens of existing governments to exit more easily.

“When seasteading becomes a viable alternative, switching from one government to another would be a matter of sailing to the other without even leaving your house,” said Patri Friedman at the first annual Seasteading conference.[18][21][22]

The Seasteading Institute (TSI) focused on three areas: building a community, doing research, and building the first seastead in the San Francisco Bay. TSI advocated starting small, using proven technology as much as possible.[23]

The project picked up mainstream exposure after having been brought to the attention of PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Thiel donated $500,000 in initial seed capital to start The Seasteading Institute, and has contributed $1.7 million [24] in total to date. He also spoke out on behalf of its viability in his essay “The Education of a Libertarian”.[25]

As a result of Thiel’s backing, TSI received widespread media attention from a variety of sources including [26] The Economist[20] Business Insider,[27] and BBC.[28][29]

In 2008, Friedman and Gramlich had hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the San Francisco Bay by 2010[30][31] Plans were to launch a seastead by 2014,[32] and TSI projected that the seasteading population would exceed 150 individuals in 2015.[33] TSI did not meet these initial targets.

In January 2009, the Seasteading Institute patented a design for a 200-person resort seastead, ClubStead, about a city block in size, produced by consultancy firm Marine Innovation & Technology. The ClubStead design marked the first major engineering analysis in the seasteading movement.[20][34][35]

In the spring of 2013,[36] TSI launched The Floating City Project.[37] The project proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation, rather than the open ocean.[38] TSI claimed that doing so would have several advantages:

In October 2013, the Institute raised $27,082 from 291 funders in a crowdfunding campaign[39] TSI used the funds to hire the Dutch marine engineering firm DeltaSync[40] to write an engineering study for The Floating City Project.

In September 2016 the Seasteading Institute met with officials in French Polynesia[41] to discuss building a prototype seastead in a sheltered lagoon. Teva Rohfristch, Minister for Economic Recovery was the first to invite The Seasteading Institute to meet with government officials.The meeting was arranged by Former Minister of Tourism, Marc Collins.[42]

On January 13, 2017, French Polynesia Minister of Housing, Jean-Christophe Bouissou signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TSI to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone”. TSI spun off a for-profit company called “Blue Frontiers”, which will build and operate a prototype seastead in the zone.[43] The prototype will be based on a design by marine engineering firm Blue 21.[6][7]

On January 13, 2017, the French Polynesian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Seasteading Institute to cooperate on creating legal framework to allow for the development of The Floating Island Project. The legislation will give the Floating Island Project its own “special governing framework” creating an “innovative special economic zone.”[44]

The Seasteading Institute announced the formation of a new company, Blue Frontiers, to construct the Floating Island Project.[42][45]

On March 3, 2018, a mayor from French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and had expired at the end of 2017 in response to a challenger trying to make it an issue for the May, 2018 elections.[46]

On May 15, 2018 Blue Frontiers will be raising funds through a cryptographic token (Seacoin) to prepare for building in the Sea Zone when the French Polynesian government passes the SeaZone act later in the year. [47]

Contents

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. However, they’re typically optimized for travel and short-term stay, not for permanent residence in a single location.

Examples:

Platform designs based on spar buoys, similar to oil platforms.[50] In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.[34]

Examples:

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete.[52] Reinforced cement is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures.

Examples:

A single, monolithic structure that is not intended to be expanded or connected to other modules.

Examples:

The SeaOrbiter is an oceangoing research vessel designed to give scientists and others a residential yet mobile research station. The station will have laboratories, workshops, living quarters and a pressurized deck to support divers and submarines. It is headed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien. The cost is expected to be around $52.7 million.[57]

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland[58][48] but as of 2014 the project is “on hold”.[59][58][48]

Criticisms have been leveled at both the practicality and desirability of seasteading. These can be broken down into governmental, logistical, and societal categories.

Critics believe that creating governance structures from scratch is a lot harder than it seems.[60] Additionally, seasteads would still be at risk of political dominance at the hands of nation states.[20]

On a logistical level, seasteads could be too remote, and not offer sufficient amenities (such as access to culture, restaurants, shopping) to be attractive to potential residents.[20] It is also possible that seasteads can’t be built to withstand open ocean conditions in an economical fashion.[60][20]

Seasteads may cause environmental damage from visual pollution, resource extraction, and waste production. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the local population.[60] Some believe that seasteads exist primarily to allow wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes.[3] Others believe that seasteads will allow residents to pursue anti-social ends, such as avoiding financial, environmental, and labor regulations.[3][60]

The Seasteading Institute held its first conference in Burlingame, California, October 10, 2008. 45 people from 9 countries attended.[61] The second Seasteading conference was significantly larger, and held in San Francisco, California, September 2830, 2009.[62][63] The third Seasteading conference took place on May 31 – June 2, 2012.[64]

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, and his executive leadership became a maritime based community named the Sea Organization (Sea Org). Beginning in 1967 with a complement of four ships the Sea Org spent most of its existence on the high sea, visiting ports around the world for refueling and resupply. In 1975 much of these operations were shifted to land based locations around the world, especially in the USA (e.g. Clearwater, FL) and the UK (Saint Hill Manor).

Seasteading has been imagined numerous times in pop culture in recent years.

A seastead is an idea; a floating community at sea. It is a homestead, just like in the John Wayne movies, but on the water, not the prairie; outside the reach of any government.

Read More

WIRED.com, 16 January, 2018

This is one of the most important books Ive ever read. Dave Barr Kirtley, science fiction author & host of Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast.

One hour podcast, no edits.

Listen and Read More

The Daily Sentinel, 5 January, 2018

The Seasteading Institute has steadily grown in credibility, its vision no longer considered science fiction, especially because there is now an actual prototype being designed. It involves several private companies, architects, scholars, and now the government of French Polynesia The Institute created a company called Blue Frontiers to construct and operate the proposed city, planned for occupation by the end of this decade. Its artist drawings are fascinating, showing a floating island with houses and commercial buildings attached by floating causeways Perhaps the oceans covering 70 percent of the Earth may really be the next frontier.

Read More

TABI LABO, 4 January, 2018

Japan Media

In preparation for the tsunami disaster due to typhoons and earthquakes, the Seasteading Institute has selected narrow places with little influence of the open oceanWe can hardly imagine ourselves shifting from the present life to the maritime life, but the research of the Seasteading Institute may be drawing attention as a useful techniquelets continue to focus on the magnificent project for the future.

Progrss, 2 January, 2018

Featured on Home Page!

San Franciscan non-profit, The Seasteading Institute, is working towards building self-sufficient and self-reliable floating cities in an attempt to reverse environmental damage and jumpstart the global economy.

The organizations goal is to maximize entrepreneurial freedom and reverse damage accrued to the environment.

Read More

Newshub, 28 December 2017

Marvelous Mainstream TV in New Zealand!

The movement is called sea steading, a man-made floating community that sets its own laws and is self-sustaining, and the first one could be built on our Pacific doorstep in French Polynesia.

Watch and Read More!

Radio New Zealand, 27 December 2017

The creators of a man-made floating island off Tahiti say they want a quarter of its population to be made up of Polynesian people.

`We feel weve convinced the government and a lot of the population theres a real opportunity to work together to improve the lagoon. [Co-founder] Marc Collins said first figures show living there would be affordable and might cost about the same as an apartment in Papeete.

He said Blue Frontiers was still in talks with the French Polynesian government about creating a special regulatory environment for the project which is aimed at attracting investment and talent.

Read More

INHABITAT, 27 December 2017

Inhabitat spoke with architect Simon Nummy and Blue Frontiers co-founder Joe Quirk to hear more about the vision for the worlds first floating city.

`Each building strives for energy independence and the architecture results from this;energy efficiencyandpassivestrategies are vital, Nummy told Inhabitat. `Polynesian architecture is primarily about the roof and we have tried to interpret this in a contemporary, sensitive way that both reflects local precedents whileharvesting rainwaterand discretely maximizing the opportunities for photovoltaics andvertical axis wind turbines.’

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Straits Times, 24 December 2017

With seasteading, we can put tens of thousands or perhaps millions of people on platforms in our lifetime. With the Mars plan, the reality of many people going in our lifetime is slim. Its cool to colonise the solar system, but theres an atmosphere on earth and we can live here. Oceans are the only place were not really living. We should own our own planet first, and it will be much cheaper. How many billions or trillions of dollars would it take to put dozens, not to mention thousands, of people on Mars? posed Randolph Hencken, the executive director of the Seasteading Institute.

Read More

Newsmax TV, 22 December, 2017

Newsmax TV reaches 40 million homes!

My imagination is definitely excited, saysNewsmax host Bill Tucker. This is fascinating. Basically what youre talking about is a free market of government. Dont like this one? Go move to another place. Joe, good luck, really and truly, with the venture. It sounds tremendously exciting.

Watch!

History of an extraordinary project:

Imagine a handful of artificial islands forming an arc of a circle, with houses with raised roofs, offices, laboratories, trade, underwater restaurant and artificial beaches This maritime city, politically autonomous, does not depend on any government!

Read PDFfor free or paid content on-line

La Dpche de Tahiti, 21 December 2017

The initial project of the floating islands of 7,500 square meters on the water could triple in sizemore than 2,000 jobs could be created [by 2030].Blue Frontiers offers a strict environmental impact control framework

Read More

France TV Info, 21 December, 2017

These are young people who believe that we have a better tomorrow, says Marc Collins, ambassador to The Seasteading Institute and Managing Director of Blue Frontiers.

Watch!

CNN Tech, 20 December, 2017

This is a huge score for mainstream acceptance of seasteading.

The US-based Seasteading Institute intends to build a Floating Island Project off the coast of Tahiti. It would consist of cities built on modular platforms. The project could be proof-of-concept for future politically autonomous countries built on water.

Watch!

DailyMail, 18 December 2017

The structures will feature green roofs covered with vegetation and construction will use local bamboo, coconut fibre, and recycled metal and plasticthe project will still need to be approved by the local government, and possibly France, which holds the territory.

Read More

The Sun, 18 December 2017

Great British Press!

`If we can be behind a reef break, then we can design floating platforms that are sufficient for those waters at an affordable cost. We dont have to start from scratch as this is a pilot project. They also have very stable institutions so were able to work with a government that wants us there, that we have respect for and they have respect for us.

Randolph [Hencken] added that he was confident the project could benefit the French Polynesias economy and draw in a fresh wave of tourism.

Read More

O Globo, 18, December, 2017

The consortium believes that by 2050 the Pacific is home to thousands of new city-states.

Read More

Fault Lines, 18 December 2017

Listen!

Business Insider, 17 December 2017

Read More

52-insights, 16 December 2017

A highly eccentric ideafrom the fringes of Silicon ValleyWe talk to American author Joe Quirk.

Read More

Novinky, 14 December 2017

Great Czech Republic Press!

A place on the shores of French Polynesia has already been visited by architects and engineers The floating town of Polynesia is also set to operate in a Special Economic Zone where it is possible to test the ideas of Quirk and his colleagues.The authors of the project want to have their research institute and also a power plant capable of delivering and selling clean energy.

Read More

Mundo, 10 December 2017

Major Brazilian Press!

The Economist (German), 8, December 2017

Stupendous German Press!

Private Cities in International Waters.

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iNews, 8 December 2017

Great British Press!

Floating cities may sound like science fiction, but if Blue Frontiers has its way, about 250 people will be living on about 15 artificial islands in the lagoon by 2020. By 2030, the company hopes to have installed a total of 45 islands and its effort to extend the concept of civilisation into something it likes to call sea-vilisation will be well underway.

Blue Frontiers is the commercial wing of the Seasteading Institute, an organisation committed to building floating startup societies that offer innovative governance models. In Tahiti it will attempt to achieve both aims by locating its islands in a newly created special economic zone that offers latitude to experiment with new ways of running a community.

Read More

Science and Future, 31 November 2017

Great French Press!

The aim of the project is multiple, to the point where we no longer know where to turn our heads: it would be an opportunity to test different modes of governance, to experiment with sustainable technologies (desalination, renewable energies, floating food production), but also constitute scientific marine stations. Or even serve as liferafts for coastal populations displaced by sea level rise.

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Tahiti-Infos, 30 November 2017

Great Tahiti Press!

The floating island project sponsored by the Californian Seasteading Institute is starting to take shape The Polynesian manager of the structure, Marc Collins, confirms to us that [Blue Frontiers] will be on time to respect its commitments towards the Country, with a publication of the environmental and socio-economic impact studies of their artificial island before the end of the year.

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Latina Geeks, 30 November 2017

ICOs to WatchBlue Frontiersis the for-profit arm of theSeasteading Institute, a non-profit that is exploring the concept of building floating societies on man-made islands that will act as self-governing organizations of startups, research labs, and homes.

Blue Frontiers has signed an MOU with French Polynesia (Tahiti) to build a floating island in the protected waters of a Tahitian lagoon, which will be the first of these startup society ecosystems. The Tahitians are on the front lines of climate change, as it is predicted that a third of the Tahitian Islands will be underwater by 2100. As a people, Tahitians are aware of their need to find options to keep their cultural traditions and people alive beyond climate change impact. Tahitians also consider themselves the original Seasteaders as they have been sailing and living at sea their entire history.

With seasteading as a viable option in the coming decades, we can look beyond the frustration of modern political systems. Peacefully exploring alternative methods of governance for the betterment of humanity is worthy of pursuit.

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.

Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a combination of the words sea and homesteading. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state.

Seasteaders say such autonomous floating cities would foster faster development of techniques “to feed the hungry, cure the sick, clean the atmosphere and enrich the poor”.[1][2] Some critics fear seasteads are designed more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other problems.[3][4]

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperating with an existing nation to prototype floating islands that are legally semi-autonomous within the nation’s protected territorial waters. On January 13, 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone” for a prototype. [6][7] On March 3, 2018, a mayor from French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and had expired at the end of 2017 in response to a challenger trying to make it an issue for the May, 2018 elections.[8] The project continues forward and will begin a crowdfunding campaign on May 15, 2018.[9]

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,[10][11] Paolo Soleri[12] and companies such as Shimizu and E. Kevin Schopfer.[13]

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

Other historical predecessors and inspirations for seasteading include:

At least two people independently coined the term seasteading: Ken Neumeyer in his book Sailing the Farm (1981) and Wayne Gramlich in his article “Seasteading Homesteading on the High Seas” (1998).[15]

Gramlichs essay attracted the attention of Patri Friedman.[16] The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001.[17] Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

On April 15, 2008, Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI), an organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters.[18][19][20]

Friedman and Gramlich noted that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from shore. Beyond that boundary lie the high seas, which are not subject to the laws of any sovereign state other than the flag under which a ship sails.

They proposed that a seastead could take advantage of the absence of laws and regulations outside the sovereignty of nations to experiment with new governance systems, and allow the citizens of existing governments to exit more easily.

“When seasteading becomes a viable alternative, switching from one government to another would be a matter of sailing to the other without even leaving your house,” said Patri Friedman at the first annual Seasteading conference.[18][21][22]

The Seasteading Institute (TSI) focused on three areas: building a community, doing research, and building the first seastead in the San Francisco Bay. TSI advocated starting small, using proven technology as much as possible.[23]

The project picked up mainstream exposure after having been brought to the attention of PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Thiel donated $500,000 in initial seed capital to start The Seasteading Institute, and has contributed $1.7 million [24] in total to date. He also spoke out on behalf of its viability in his essay “The Education of a Libertarian”.[25]

As a result of Thiel’s backing, TSI received widespread media attention from a variety of sources including [26] The Economist[20] Business Insider,[27] and BBC.[28][29]

In 2008, Friedman and Gramlich had hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the San Francisco Bay by 2010[30][31] Plans were to launch a seastead by 2014,[32] and TSI projected that the seasteading population would exceed 150 individuals in 2015.[33] TSI did not meet these initial targets.

In January 2009, the Seasteading Institute patented a design for a 200-person resort seastead, ClubStead, about a city block in size, produced by consultancy firm Marine Innovation & Technology. The ClubStead design marked the first major engineering analysis in the seasteading movement.[20][34][35]

In the spring of 2013,[36] TSI launched The Floating City Project.[37] The project proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation, rather than the open ocean.[38] TSI claimed that doing so would have several advantages:

In October 2013, the Institute raised $27,082 from 291 funders in a crowdfunding campaign[39] TSI used the funds to hire the Dutch marine engineering firm DeltaSync[40] to write an engineering study for The Floating City Project.

In September 2016 the Seasteading Institute met with officials in French Polynesia[41] to discuss building a prototype seastead in a sheltered lagoon. Teva Rohfristch, Minister for Economic Recovery was the first to invite The Seasteading Institute to meet with government officials.The meeting was arranged by Former Minister of Tourism, Marc Collins.[42]

On January 13, 2017, French Polynesia Minister of Housing, Jean-Christophe Bouissou signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TSI to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone”. TSI spun off a for-profit company called “Blue Frontiers”, which will build and operate a prototype seastead in the zone.[43] The prototype will be based on a design by marine engineering firm Blue 21.[6][7]

On January 13, 2017, the French Polynesian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Seasteading Institute to cooperate on creating legal framework to allow for the development of The Floating Island Project. The legislation will give the Floating Island Project its own “special governing framework” creating an “innovative special economic zone.”[44]

The Seasteading Institute announced the formation of a new company, Blue Frontiers, to construct the Floating Island Project.[42][45]

On March 3, 2018, a mayor from French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and had expired at the end of 2017 in response to a challenger trying to make it an issue for the May, 2018 elections.[46]

On May 15, 2018 Blue Frontiers will be raising funds through a cryptographic token (Seacoin) to prepare for building in the Sea Zone when the French Polynesian government passes the SeaZone act later in the year. [47]

Contents

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. However, they’re typically optimized for travel and short-term stay, not for permanent residence in a single location.

Examples:

Platform designs based on spar buoys, similar to oil platforms.[50] In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.[34]

Examples:

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete.[52] Reinforced cement is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures.

Examples:

A single, monolithic structure that is not intended to be expanded or connected to other modules.

Examples:

The SeaOrbiter is an oceangoing research vessel designed to give scientists and others a residential yet mobile research station. The station will have laboratories, workshops, living quarters and a pressurized deck to support divers and submarines. It is headed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien. The cost is expected to be around $52.7 million.[57]

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland[58][48] but as of 2014 the project is “on hold”.[59][58][48]

Criticisms have been leveled at both the practicality and desirability of seasteading. These can be broken down into governmental, logistical, and societal categories.

Critics believe that creating governance structures from scratch is a lot harder than it seems.[60] Additionally, seasteads would still be at risk of political dominance at the hands of nation states.[20]

On a logistical level, seasteads could be too remote, and not offer sufficient amenities (such as access to culture, restaurants, shopping) to be attractive to potential residents.[20] It is also possible that seasteads can’t be built to withstand open ocean conditions in an economical fashion.[60][20]

Seasteads may cause environmental damage from visual pollution, resource extraction, and waste production. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the local population.[60] Some believe that seasteads exist primarily to allow wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes.[3] Others believe that seasteads will allow residents to pursue anti-social ends, such as avoiding financial, environmental, and labor regulations.[3][60]

The Seasteading Institute held its first conference in Burlingame, California, October 10, 2008. 45 people from 9 countries attended.[61] The second Seasteading conference was significantly larger, and held in San Francisco, California, September 2830, 2009.[62][63] The third Seasteading conference took place on May 31 – June 2, 2012.[64]

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, and his executive leadership became a maritime based community named the Sea Organization (Sea Org). Beginning in 1967 with a complement of four ships the Sea Org spent most of its existence on the high sea, visiting ports around the world for refueling and resupply. In 1975 much of these operations were shifted to land based locations around the world, especially in the USA (e.g. Clearwater, FL) and the UK (Saint Hill Manor).

Seasteading has been imagined numerous times in pop culture in recent years.

Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a combination of the words sea and homesteading. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state.

Seasteaders say such autonomous floating cities would foster faster development of techniques “to feed the hungry, cure the sick, clean the atmosphere and enrich the poor”.[1][2] Some critics fear seasteads are designed more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other problems.[3][4]

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperating with an existing nation to prototype floating islands that are legally semi-autonomous within the nation’s protected territorial waters. On January 13, 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone” for a prototype. [6][7] However, on March 3, 2018, French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and had expired at the end of 2017.[8]

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,[9][10] Paolo Soleri[11] and companies such as Shimizu and E. Kevin Schopfer.[12]

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

Other historical predecessors and inspirations for seasteading include:

At least two people independently coined the term seasteading: Ken Neumeyer in his book Sailing the Farm (1981) and Wayne Gramlich in his article “Seasteading Homesteading on the High Seas” (1998).[14]

Gramlichs essay attracted the attention of Patri Friedman.[15] The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001.[16] Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

On April 15, 2008, Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI), an organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters.[17][18][19]

Friedman and Gramlich noted that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from shore. Beyond that boundary lie the high seas, which are not subject to the laws of any sovereign state other than the flag under which a ship sails.

They proposed that a seastead could take advantage of the absence of laws and regulations outside the sovereignty of nations to experiment with new governance systems, and allow the citizens of existing governments to exit more easily.

“When seasteading becomes a viable alternative, switching from one government to another would be a matter of sailing to the other without even leaving your house,” said Patri Friedman at the first annual Seasteading conference.[17][20][21]

The Seasteading Institute (TSI) focused on three areas: building a community, doing research, and building the first seastead in the San Francisco Bay. TSI advocated starting small, using proven technology as much as possible.[22]

The project picked up mainstream exposure after having been brought to the attention of PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Thiel donated $500,000 in initial seed capital to start The Seasteading Institute, and has contributed $1.7 million [23] in total to date. He also spoke out on behalf of its viability in his essay “The Education of a Libertarian”.[24]

As a result of Thiel’s backing, TSI received widespread media attention from a variety of sources including [25] The Economist[19] Business Insider,[26] and BBC.[27][28]

In 2008, Friedman and Gramlich had hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the San Francisco Bay by 2010[29][30] Plans were to launch a seastead by 2014,[31] and TSI projected that the seasteading population would exceed 150 individuals in 2015.[32] TSI did not meet these initial targets.

In January 2009, the Seasteading Institute patented a design for a 200-person resort seastead, ClubStead, about a city block in size, produced by consultancy firm Marine Innovation & Technology. The ClubStead design marked the first major engineering analysis in the seasteading movement.[19][33][34]

In the spring of 2013,[35] TSI launched The Floating City Project.[36] The project proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation, rather than the open ocean.[37] TSI claimed that doing so would have several advantages:

In October 2013, the Institute raised $27,082 from 291 funders in a crowdfunding campaign[38] TSI used the funds to hire the Dutch marine engineering firm DeltaSync[39] to write an engineering study for The Floating City Project.

In September 2016 the Seasteading Institute met with officials in French Polynesia[40] to discuss building a prototype seastead in a sheltered lagoon. Teva Rohfristch, Minister for Economic Recovery was the first to invite The Seasteading Institute to meet with government officials.The meeting was arranged by Former Minister of Tourism, Marc Collins.[41]

On January 13, 2017, French Polynesia Minister of Housing, Jean-Christophe Bouissou signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TSI to create the first semi-autonomous “seazone”. TSI spun off a for-profit company called “Blue Frontiers”, which will build and operate a prototype seastead in the zone.[42] The prototype will be based on a design by marine engineering firm Blue 21.[6][7]

On January 13, 2017, the French Polynesian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Seasteading Institute to cooperate on creating legal framework to allow for the development of The Floating Island Project. The legislation will give the Floating Island Project its own “special governing framework” creating an “innovative special economic zone.”[43]

The Seasteading Institute announced the formation of a new company, Blue Frontiers, to construct the Floating Island Project.[41][44]

However, on March 3, 2018, French Polynesia said the agreement was “not a legal document” and expired at the end of 2017.[45]

Contents

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. However, they’re typically optimized for travel and short-term stay, not for permanent residence in a single location.

Examples:

Platform designs based on spar buoys, similar to oil platforms.[48] In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.[33]

Examples:

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete.[50] Reinforced cement is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures.

Examples:

A single, monolithic structure that is not intended to be expanded or connected to other modules.

Examples:

The SeaOrbiter is an oceangoing research vessel designed to give scientists and others a residential yet mobile research station. The station will have laboratories, workshops, living quarters and a pressurized deck to support divers and submarines. It is headed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien. The cost is expected to be around $52.7 million.[55]

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland[56][46] but as of 2014 the project is “on hold”.[57][56][46]

Criticisms have been leveled at both the practicality and desirability of seasteading. These can be broken down into governmental, logistical, and societal categories.

Critics believe that creating governance structures from scratch is a lot harder than it seems.[58] Additionally, seasteads would still be at risk of political dominance at the hands of nation states.[19]

On a logistical level, seasteads could be too remote, and not offer sufficient amenities (such as access to culture, restaurants, shopping) to be attractive to potential residents.[19] It is also possible that seasteads can’t be built to withstand open ocean conditions in an economical fashion.[58][19]

Seasteads may cause environmental damage from visual pollution, resource extraction, and waste production. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the local population.[58] Some believe that seasteads exist primarily to allow wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes.[3] Others believe that seasteads will allow residents to pursue anti-social ends, such as avoiding financial, environmental, and labor regulations.[3][58]

The Seasteading Institute held its first conference in Burlingame, California, October 10, 2008. 45 people from 9 countries attended.[59] The second Seasteading conference was significantly larger, and held in San Francisco, California, September 2830, 2009.[60][61] The third Seasteading conference took place on May 31 – June 2, 2012.[62]

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, and his executive leadership became a maritime based community named the Sea Organization (Sea Org). Beginning in 1967 with a complement of four ships the Sea Org spent most of its existence on the high sea, visiting ports around the world for refueling and resupply. In 1975 much of these operations were shifted to land based locations around the world, especially in the USA (e.g. Clearwater, FL) and the UK (Saint Hill Manor).

Seasteading has been imagined numerous times in pop culture in recent years.

A South Pacific island nation is cutting ties with tech billionaires and libertarians.

In 2017, government officials in French Polynesia signed an agreement with the Seasteading Institute, a group founded by investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, that would give the libertarian group access to build a floating and politically autonomous city, called a seastead, off the coast.

Now the country’s ruling political party says the agreement has expired.

The ruling Tapura Huiraatira party said in a Facebook post that the memorandum of understanding, a non-binding document that sealed the government’s intent to work with the group, had a “deadline of validity” at the end of 2017. The agreement became void in January 2018.

“It’s not a contract. This document does not bind the Country [sic] in any way. It has no legal value,” the Facebook note said.

Facebook/tapura-huiraatira-officiel

In 2008, Thiel, a longtime tech industry fixture and a Trump transition team member, set out on a mission to develop a floating city that would run independently from existing nations. Thiel invested $1.7 million in The Seasteading Institute, but resigned from its board in 2011.

Thiel later said in an interview that engineering seasteads is “not quite feasible.”

After the group’s founding in 2008, some tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley chastised the idea, saying that the island paradises would be too wild, expensive, and elitist to generate real results.

But the seasteading concept began eventually gathering support from libertarians and people living outside the Silicon Valley bubble. A 2013 crowdfunding campaign raised over $27,000.

For years, the Seasteading Institute wanted to set up camp in international waters. Eventually, the group determined the costs of building hundreds of miles from a shoreline, away from an existing nation, were too extravagant. So the institute decided to team up with a host country.

French Polynesia fit the bill.

The island chain is located an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles. It has a fiber cable that runs underwater to Hawaii, providing the bandwidth that tech workers require.

Rising sea levels threaten French Polynesia’s existence, which made a proposal to build new land appealing to the government.

An artist’s rendering shows the plans for a seastead off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Blue Frontiers

In 2016, the Seasteading Institute sent a delegation to meet with French Polynesian officials. They drafted an informal agreement between the government and the Seasteading Institute.

But as the Seasteading Institute plotted its vision, locals from Tahiti the largest island in French Polynesia grew increasingly concerned about the prospect of “tech colonialism.”

A documentary film crew followed the Seasteading Institute leadership at a conference in Tahiti last year. They found that locals weren’t given much of a voice at these events. In the film, Alexandre Taliercio, a local radio and TV personality, describes the seastead project as a cross between “visionary genius” and “megalomania.”

In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Taliercio argued that rich Americans just want to skip out on paying taxes. “These millionaires have much more to gain than we do,” he said.

The Seasteading Institute has not publicly addressed the sunken plans. Its website features a video about the French Polynesian “floating island” splashed across the front page.

Business Insider contacted the Seasteading Institute and did not immediately receive comment.

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit think-tank working to make floating societies a reality. Its our belief that humanity needs to start looking to the oceans for innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing problems: rising sea levels, overpopulation, poor governance, and more.